As soon as I saw the news releases this week from Statistics Canada announcing the annual publication of national murder figures, I readied my arguments about why the increase had nothing to do with the Harper government’s dismantling of the gun registry.

I knew the gun-banning groups would be all over the new numbers, which show a 7% increase from 2010 — a year in which Canada saw its lowest murder rate in four decades.

And I “knew” the anti-gunners would insist the rise was due to the Harper government’s dismantling of the gun registry, even though StatsCan’s latest numbers were from 2011 and the registry was not shut down until this year.

I knew the gun-controllers would jump on the increase in yet another attempt to reinstate the registry and make criminals of Canada’s law-abiding gun owners.

I needn’t have worried, though. StatsCan did my work for me. The national number-crunchers came (indirectly) to the defence of this country’s beleaguered sport shooters, hunters and gun collectors by stating very clearly that nearly all of the increase between 2010 and 2011 was due to knives. Guns weren’t to blame for the increased number of murders, nor were changes to federal gun laws.

And the last time I checked, knives weren’t included in the GUN registry.

Not only was the end of the registry not responsible for the uptick in homicides, StatsCan went further. Gun murders are at their lowest level in 50 years — half a century!

Indeed, StatsCan’s annual report was full of numbers that prove the uselessness of gun control.

For instance, some anti-gun activists will no doubt try to stretch the truth a little and claim the fact that gun crimes are so low is proof the registry worked to make the public safer.

Not so. As StatsCan points out, all murders — but especially firearms murders — have been on the decline since the mid-1970s, long before Ottawa began imposing draconian gun laws. The reason for the decline is demographics. There are simply fewer young men in the population now. And since men between the ages or 16 and 30 are the most likely to commit crime, if there are fewer of them on the street, there will be less crime.

Also, the statistical agency explains, “for most persons accused of homicide, this was not their first offence. Nearly six in 10 (59%) accused persons had a criminal record prior to the homicide, usually for another violent crime.”

Criminal control, not gun control, would work as a crime-reduction strategy. Keep violent criminals in prison longer and they won’t be able to commit crimes. However in our politically correct age with our extremely liberal courts, we have decided only about a third of criminals should ever do any time. So much for criminal control.

But for me the biggest argument against a registry comes from StatsCan’s numbers on what types of guns were favoured by murderers last year. Long guns (rifles and shotguns) — the guns covered by the defunct registry — accounted for just over one-fifth of all gun homicides committed in 2011.

Meanwhile, handguns were the weapons of choice in over 70% of murders. And there are five times as many long guns in Canada as handguns, probably more.

That is a stark reversal from the 1970s and 1980s, when long guns were used in three-quarters of killings and handguns in one-quarter.

How does that prove registries are useless as crime-prevention tools? Handguns have been subject to registration since 1934. They still must be registered and are much harder to acquire than long guns.

If a registry were useful at lowering crime, we’d have seen proof decades ago through our handgun laws.

Gun registry proven worthless

As soon as I saw the news releases this week from Statistics Canada announcing the annual publication of national murder figures, I readied my arguments about why the increase had nothing to do with the Harper government’s dismantling of the gun registry.

I knew the gun-banning groups would be all over the new numbers, which show a 7% increase from 2010 — a year in which Canada saw its lowest murder rate in four decades.

And I “knew” the anti-gunners would insist the rise was due to the Harper government’s dismantling of the gun registry, even though StatsCan’s latest numbers were from 2011 and the registry was not shut down until this year.